Board Description CONFIDENTIAL

The BeagleBone Black is the newest member of the BeagleBoard family and is lower-cost, high-expansion focused BeagleBoard using a low cost Sitara AM335x Cortex A8 ARM processor from Texas Instruments. It is similar to the Beaglebone but with some features removed and some features added.

The table below gives the high points on the differences between the BeagleBone and BeagleBone Black.

BeagleBone Black Features

The following table lists the key features of the BeagleBone Black.

BeagleBone Black Picture

Here is a picture of the board.

BeagleBone Black Key Component Locations

Here are the locations of the key components on th eboard.

Accessories

Serial Debug Cable

The debug cable is a standard FTDI to TTL cable. Make sure you get the 3.3V version. You can purchase this from several different sources including but not limited to:

Pin 1 on the cable is the black wire and connects to pin 1 on the board, the pin with the white dot next to it.

5VDC Power Supply

The board uses the same power supply as the Beaglebone. 5VDC, 1A, 2.1mm, center positive. The power supply is not supplied with the board.

USB Cable

This will normally be supplied with the BeagleBone Black, but in the case of the RevA4, it was not.
The connector on the board is a miniUSB type B female connector and requires a miniUSB type B male mating connector.
The original BeagleBone uses a miniUSB type AB connector.

HDMI Cable

Board Revisions and Changes

Revision A4

PROTOTYPE VERSION-----NOT FOR PRODUCTION

First prototype release version of the board. Limited distribution. One notable issue here is that the board has an AM3352 processor instead of an AM3359, despite how the part is marked. Part was mismarked as an AM3359. The SGX and PRU are not operational.

Revision A5

PRODUCTION RELEASE

Boards were built using the correct AM3359 processor.

Known Issues

REV A4...Processor is a AM3352 due to the incorrect part being marked as an AM3359.

REV A4...The A4 does not ship with any cables. Rev A5 will ship with the USB cable.

If you have a cape that is in production and can be purchased and you would like it listed, please contact Circuitco.

Most of the current capes will work with the BeagleBone Black. However some may not.
The onboard HDMI driver uses the LCD pins. They are still connected to the expansion header, but in some cases, they could cause an LCD cape to have some noise issues.
The onboard eMMC uses the MMC1 signals. They are also connected to the expansion header. In order to use these signals by a cape, the eMMC device on the BeagleBone Black will need to be disabled by activating the reset line to the eMMC device. This will require booting from the uSD port.